Well, well, well. I'm making stuff again.

 Hello world!  I haven't seen you in a coon's age!  Totally my bad.  But I need to start this up again as this may be my way of networking once again.

I'm doing a restoration and hit a bit of a roadblock.  Gonna see if my buddy Gino can give me a hand tomorrow.

And now, let's see if I can load a pic.  I may not be able to without a thumb drive as no pics are on this computer. 

I'm trying to repair this hope chest leg that was missing a section of it.  More pics of this to follow, BUT even more important:

A dog found me!!!! Just over two years ago this handsome dude came into my life and has helped me so much!  Meet my main man OTIS!!!  He has gotten my full attention and requires a lot of time so many of my interests have been put on hold, but now that I am starting to figure things out and how to organize my time better it is time for me to finish some beer batches, fix a hope chest for a buddy, fix some house projects, fix my truck, somehow finance an RV and to sell extraneous items that I no longer need or use.  

I hope that I can regain some former readers as well!

Sean

A Year of Craft Beer Revisited

I have abandoned my beer drinking and reading audience!  Not to fret!  I will be returning very shortly.  Perhaps tonight if I feel up to it.  Before I do so, I feel like I need to explain...

Summer happened.  The season brought on LOTS of work at my employer with many an hour of overtime and just when it looked like things would slow up a huge fire breaks out at their main distribution center and our production has to ramp up to 7 days a week and then some!  It's not an excuse though!

Truthfully, I have had a bunch of different beers at my local pub The Grey Lodge and logged them in on Untappd where I have 48 badges now!  But at home I have only really had my homebrew here and there.

Other than an intense hot dog season there were little highlights to my summer.  I have been quasi helping my father work on the sailboat that we obtained last Xmas.  It is slow going.  Mostly I have been sleeping late on Saturday and putzing around out in the shop with him.

I threw a successful homebrew party where I showcased 4 of my brews in early summer.  The party was a success and It seemed that everyone liked at least one of my beers.  The most popular being Eddie's Small Bier which was a second running of the grain that I used for my Chocolate Stout.  I managed to squeeze a bit more sugar from that grain and made a tasty light ale with an ABV of about 3%.  I'm currently drinking in my apartment another second runnings beer that I reused from a Wee Heavy that I brewed for that party.  This one is about the same ABV and pretty flavorful.  The Scotch Ale grains are pretty appealing to my palate.  

I managed to see Furthur this summer with my brother, his friends, and my buddy Pat and his friends.  That was a really cool experience!  I had never seen Bob Weir or Phil Lesh play and was really happy to finally do so!

There was one HUGE event this summer.  One that I plan for all year and one that I brought everything, including the kitchen sink, to except my sleeping bag with the first night of this event dropping into the 50's.  The Philadelphia Folk Fest is what I speak about!  If you haven't been, then you haven't been.  It is very difficult to sum up.  I posted on FB when I got there that it was like I instantly had 3000 friends.  To sum up this years experience... Carolina Chocolate Drops were an incredible band amoungst a ton of incredible music both on stage and after the shows in the campground to whom I listened to until 6AM each night.  Todd Rundgren was kind of a d!ckhe@d on stage.  I don't know if he meant to come off sounding as such, but he did.

So alas, I lead up to the future of this Year of Craft Beer.  Tomorrow I will start off with a variety of pumpkin beer!  I know, it's too early, but they are in the stores now and they usually sell out by time I want them.  I snuck a few in before I blog about them and am glad that I had bought them!  All that I have to say is that Weyerbacher RULES!

In fact,  I may partake one now as I eat my dinner.  Have a great night and remember NOT to drink crappy beer!  Life is too short!

-Wiss

A Year of Craft Beer, Vol. 142, Flying Fish Farmhouse Summer Ale

Hi everyone!

Yeah, it's been a while, but summer happened.  The highlight so far was seeing Furthur at the Mann Music Center!  But anyway it's been a tough time getting to the blog.  Of course, Untappd is loaded with new beers for me!  I have close to 50 badges now!

Tonight's beer is called a Farmhouse Ale (from France) but is actually classified as an American Blond Ale which is basically lager like, or Kolsch like, or even, like in this case, Farmhouse like.  It can be lightly malty with subdued fruitiness and medium hopped and should be very drinkable just as this one is.

One pic was too dark, one too light, I could not get the true colour of this beer.

The beer poured a clear and light gold in colour with a typical lager like thin white head and faint lacing.

The aromas are of sweet pale malt, biscuity and mildly fruity (pear and some lemon) yeast, some light notes of honey and maybe some grassy hops albeit very light just as the lemon is.

It's a pretty well balance between earthy hoppiness and pale malt sweetness aided by lemon and honey.  It's delicious and very well done.  The finish borders on dry with a mild lingering hop bitterness with faint notes of pepper.  This is a good beer!

The mouthfeel is smooth and the body light, but not watery like I have read.  The carbonation is medium or just over, but not hot in the least.

Overall, I feel this beer meets all the criteria of an American Blond Ale and many of a Farmhouse Ale as well as they seem similar and in that respect I am going to give it high marks.  To add to that, the extreme pleasantness of this beer is also going to get it a great score and I don't see why it has gotten lower scores on Beer Advocate but I am going to give it a solid 4 out of 5.

Hey, if you like that lager that you have been drinking your whole life, this is a perfect beer for you to change it up and live a little!  Life is too short to drink crappy beer!

Wiss

A Year of Craft Beer, Vol. 142, Flying Fish Extra Pale Ale

Yo!  Tonight I'm drinking yet another American Pale Ale.  Does everyone have one of these in their line-up?  This is a style taken from the India Pale Ale style of Britain and made, more or less, with American ingredients and hops.  Sometimes taken to the extreme, but this one is "Extra Pale" so it should be a bit lighter.  Let's check it out!

This beer pours crystal clear and straw to gold colour with a thin but lasting head in the form of just a ring and very little lacing.

Upon agitation biscuity yeast aromas come out along with some light malt sweetness and some floral hop notes.

The beer tastes very lightly malt sweet mixed evenly with hop bitter throughout the sip which then takes over mildly at the finish along with some peppery notes.

The mouthfeel is smooth, fairly thin, but not watery, and on the dry side with a fair bit of carbonation over moderate.

Overall, I think this is an excellent beer for summer events (cans would be great if offered).  As an American Pale Ale I believe it is too thin, but this is supposed to be extra pale and taylored made as such and when judging that needs to be considered.  Would I buy this again?  Yes!  As an extra pale ale I think this deserves a 4 out of 5!

You guys should try this beer!

-Wiss

A Year of Craft Beer, Vol. 141, Flying Fish Hopfish IPA

Hey Beerophiles,

I have been away!  It's been a busy week and I have about 20 more beers under my belt on Untappd, but unfortunately I haven't been able to get to the blog.  My bad.  I'm up to 141 posts and I think there are about 170 days gone in the year so far so I am about 30 days off.  At this rate I will get ten full months of posts in before new years.  Not too bad.  I have found out that to do this every single day is just unrealistic for me.  I hope that you understand!

Also I am in the throws of Flying Fish Brewery week on here starting off tonight with an IPA, but it is Oregon beer month and I may focus upon some of the Oregon breweries that have beer available here in PA.

So the story of the traditional English IPA is that in order to get Ale to the colonies in India in the 18th century that they had to hop it heavy to allow it to keep from spoiling on the almost year long voyage.  Hops, as you may know, are a great preservative for beer as they have a high acid content and keep bacteria from growing.  This Flying Fish representation is their version of a traditional IPA.  Let's have a look!

This beer pours an amber/light brown colour and is quite clear with a nice two finger head that lasts as very interesting dinosaur patterns on the glass.

The aroma of sweet amber malts is the most obvious of aromas and then as you agitate the beer aromas of bread and citrus tantalize your nose as well as some mild buttery notes.  Yum!  Fairly English in aroma for sure.

Tastes very English in malts and quite malt forward moving towards a bit of tart grapefruit and other mild fruits while blending with some earthy hop bitterness.  Not overly bitter and ending slightly dry, mildly bitter and peppery.

The mouthfeel is creamy with light to moderate body and fairly playful carbonation.

Overall I like this beer and it has a definite English feel to it, but the yeast and the hops seem to be a bit off.  The yeast seems to impart a biscuity and almost Belgian taste to it and the hops seem to be more on the lines of Pacific Northwest in format.  I don't know what they use.  It's a good beer and very drinkable!  I like it!  It's not incredible or awesome, but very satisfying on a warm evening!  3.5 out of 5!

Thanks for reading and I hope that this encourages someone out there to get into craft beer because really, it's the only kind of beer to drink.

-Wiss

A Year of Craft Beer, Vol. 140, Lancaster Brewing Pale Ale

Hi Aleophiles!

Tonight I want to discuss another American Pale Ale from Lancaster Brewing named Lancaster Pale Ale.  An American Pale Ale, if I haven't beaten this style to death, is the American take on the English IPA but Americanized and Texas sized!  Usually big hopped with American grown hops and American ingredients.  Let's see how this one stacks up!

The beer pours a hazy copper colour with a nice one finger head that lasts throughout the drink as a ring and broken cap and leaves nice archway patterns on the glass.

The aroma is biscuity and caramel malty sweet with hints of mellow fruit and some floral hops.  Kind of nice actually but more English than American.  I would expect more hop aroma.

The same goes for the taste.  It starts off malty and sweet with notes of cantaloup caramel and bread and then transitions towards earthy and slightly citrus hop bitterness but maintaining a strong malt foundation.

The mouthfeel is moderately sweet and smooth and light to medium bodied with moderate carbonation.  Very nice and drinkable!

This beer is really nice and tasty.  It's not exacty an APA and more like my favorite style of English Bitters, Ales, etc...  It is, however, exceptionally drinkable and you could have a few of these on a hot summer day with the best of the lagers!

Hey, this was a gift.  If a friend gives you a gift of a new beer, a homebrew, etc...  don't cast it aside and say that I don't like dark beers or something lame like that.  Get out there and drink something good!

-Wiss

A Year of Craft Beer, Vol. 139, Susquehanna Brewing Company 6th generation Stock Ale

Hey Y'all!

This beer has been around for a while and is considered an American Pale Ale as it uses hops from the Pacific Northwest but it also uses grain from Britain and truthfully it tastes very British and mild.  APA's are a take on the original English IPA's that were highly hopped to survive the long sea voyage to India.  Over the decades, for one reason or another,  IPA's lost much of their potency in alcohol and hoppiness.  APA's try to revive the original strength using American ingredients.  

This beer has been around for 6 generations and is reportedly the same as it was way back when which is most likely English in some characteristics.

The beer pours a beautiful rich and clear amber colour with a faint head and very little lacing until agitated and then it fades again.

The aroma is definitely English ale style.  Caramel malts, bready yeast, and light fruit aromas and very mild floral hops.  Very nice indeed!

The taste is equally as nice!  Caramel malty sweet light but sweet enough, some grainy yeast, a tiny bit of dark fruit and apple with a mild hoppy finish.  Bitterness is very light and barely noticeable between sips.

The mouthfeel is smooth and quite light in body but well balanced and highly sessionable!  The carbonation is moderate.  This is a nice beer!

Overall my only complaint is the body being a bit on the thin side and it's a bit off the mark as an APA but I love English ales!  Otherwise this would be an excellent beer getting a solid 4 out of 5!

I'm so glad that I received this as a gift and tried it!  Thanks Rich!  Fantastic style!

-Wiss